


space.

by uselace



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F, Fluff, I'm So Soft For These Two, all fluff, all this preath content is the only good thing to come out of covid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-16
Updated: 2020-05-16
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:01:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24213343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uselace/pseuds/uselace
Summary: Christen doesn’t remember when she found her way to Tobin’s right side.literally just pure fluff, inspired by a tweet suggesting that Christen is always on Tobin's right so that they can hold hands.
Relationships: Tobin Heath/Christen Press
Comments: 11
Kudos: 202





	space.

**Author's Note:**

> banged this out past midnight, might not be entirely coherent. i love this idea though. take this as an offering until i can get my shit together enough to actually finish my other stories. unedited. enjoy!

Christen doesn’t remember when she found her way to Tobin’s right side.

It might have been around the time Tobin bought that 23 hat. She had claimed it was a joke, but then proceeded to wear it every time they saw each other—Christen didn’t mind, mostly because it somehow made her feel a little bit closer to Tobin in a way that she craved.

Or maybe it started when they became bus buddies, an instinctual thing that pulled Christen to one side. At the time she had no idea that any of it—the warm feeling she got around Tobin, the itch to hold her hand—would become so significant, only that she had made a space for herself around Tobin. And somehow, that space made her feel whole in a way she hadn’t experienced before.

When they met, Christen hadn’t been expecting any of this. She hadn’t been expecting to fall in love with a teammate, much less  _ the _ Tobin Heath. She never could have imagined that she would become so hopelessly wrapped up in the woman who stole a championship away from them.

But then again, she never imagined she would win a world cup, either—

Yet here they are. 

She’s found her way back to Tobin’s right, always gravitating to that space that’s become so special. They just won a fucking world cup, but somehow it all pales in comparison to the way Tobin is beaming beside her as they sit by piles of confetti. Christen knows they have their reasons for keeping their relationship quiet, and they’re good ones—but God, what she wouldn’t give to be able to kiss Tobin right now, to hold her hand. 

Instead she settles for playing with the other woman’s baby hairs for just a second, in a motion she hopes can be passed off as brushing confetti off of her teammate. Tobin just smiles shyly, still holding the trophy, and Christen knows for a fact that she’s never been so in love. 

She has to tear her glance away from Tobin, because she knows that if she doesn’t look away she’ll end up doing something stupid. So she gazes off into the distance while Tobin nudges her shoulder, smiling a smile that Christen swears will be the death of her some day. 

And right there, sitting in France with her kind-of-secret girlfriend, Christen has never been happier. Kelley will probably tease her later about beaming at Tobin, looking at her “like Emily looks at Waffle House”. Christen can’t find it in herself to care, though, because she’s so wrapped up in Tobin and winning and love.

After the final, for the first time, Christen notices that there’s a distinct space next to Tobin when she’s not there. That space has become her safe place, where she goes whether she’s happy or distraught. Now, though, it’s like everyone else can sense it. Tobin’s right side is vacated, left empty so that Chris can fill it.

For the first time, she notices the same space on her left side.

Going between camps is always stressful. Long distance kind of sucks—Christen has no idea how Ali and Ashlyn put up with it for so long. They make it work, of course, but as the days without Tobin drag on the space on Christen’s left only seems to grow bigger. It feels like a part of her is missing.

She’s never been one for recklessness, but during one particularly long stretch between camps Corsie has to talk her down from flying to Portland every night for a week. 

Even though it feels empty, Christen can never quite bring herself to fill that space. Somehow she knows that anything she tried would just make the hole more pronounced, because nothing she could possibly try would be Tobin. 

Eventually she does make it out to Portland. She plans on staying with Tobin for a while, training together during the offseason—

That stay turns into a much longer one when the pandemic hits.

(Not that Christen is complaining, because Portland is beautiful but Tobin in the mornings, with lidded eyes and that raspy voice, is just  _ something else _ .)

Their designated spaces become more pronounced in quarantine. The right side of the bed is always unmade, no matter how many times Christen tries to convince Tobin to at least smooth out the sheets. When they watch movies, it’s always Christen curled into Tobin’s right. Even when they go running, they always manage to stay on their same sides.

At one point, after one of their re-inc zoom meetings, Tobin turns to her. “How much do you really care about staying secret?” It’s unexpected, completely out of left field.

But Christen has thought about this. “Not at all,” she replies steadily, and Tobin just grins playfully and places a possessive hand on the small of her back. It doesn’t take long for the fan comments to start rolling in after they make their decision—they hadn’t exactly been the best at hiding it to begin with, but now that they’ve decided on a “no fucks given” policy it becomes painfully obvious.

Christen realizes, though, as she settles into her space on Tobin’s right for another meeting—

Nothing about this is the way she imagined it. For all her anxieties and stressing though, she is completely fine with it.

Later that year they get married, to nobody’s surprise. The ceremony is small, but Christen ensures that she’s on Tobin’s right—it’s an unspoken promise that she’ll always be there on the right, for the rest of their lives.

When they walk back down the aisle to the reception, her hand slides into Tobin’s, and everything clicks into place once more.

**Author's Note:**

> i love them.


End file.
